Purple Rumor Mill: Odd Man Out QB, Shady’s Shade toward J.J. McCarthy, Draft Factoid
VikingsTerritory’s Purple Rumor Mill is a two-day chronicle each week. All the week’s rumors are lassoed and plopped in two spots — articles on Saturday and Sunday — for review. Today is the May 4th edition.
Purple Rumor Mill: Odd Man Out QB, Shady’s Shade toward J.J. McCarthy, Draft Factoid
Remember — rumors are rumors. What you read on weekends in these pieces is what the world is talking about pertaining to the Vikings, not necessarily items that will come to fruition.
Here’s the second batch of the week. Yesterday’s can be read here.
Rumor: One quarterback — either Nick Mullens or Jaren Hall — is on his way to a summer roster cut.
The Vikings currently showcase four quarterbacks on the roster:
- Sam Darnold
- J.J. McCarthy
- Nick Mullens
- Jaren Hall
The franchise absolutely will not keep four of them for the 53-man roster later this summer, so, yes, one man will be the odd man out. In theory, Jaren Hall could be tossed on the practice squad, but then he could be stolen at any moment.
When McCarthy joined via the draft, one quarterback borrowed time, and it’s either Mullens or Hall. There’s just no other way around it.
Rumor: Former NFL RB LeSean McCoy basically claims J.J. McCarthy won’t be very good.
McCoy said this week about the Vikings’ draft and McCarthy as the selection, “I’m with the Vikings. So, I see the Vikings the biggest losers because you go out there and get JJ. Like what shows you that. When I watch his tape. Maybe something I don’t know. I don’t know his leadership. I don’t know what type of player he is in the huddle. Those things matter. But when I watch his game tape. Nothing jumps off like yo, we gotta add this dude at No. 10.”
This can fall in the “who cares” category. McCoy famously said Kenny Pickett would become better than Joe Burrow, which seems comical now.
Rumor: The Vikings almost picked a defensive player first in the draft.
This one came from ESPN a few days ago. It seems Minnesota almost pressed the button on a defensive player (Dallas Turner) before selecting McCarthy, or at least contemplated it.
“In explaining his decisions last weekend, Adofo-Mensah made two primary points. First, he said that while ‘you never want to give up future picks,’ sometimes there is a player within reach who is too much of an ‘outlier.’ Adofo-Mensah, in fact, had briefly considered taking Turner with his first pick in the round and then circling back to maneuver for a quarterback,” ESPN’s Kevin Seifert wrote this week.
For weeks, if not months, draft heads assumed Minnesota would pick a quarterback foremost in the event, and it ultimately did precisely that.
Seifert added, “Doing so, he said, would have been ‘all just ego.’ Ultimately, the Vikings stayed disciplined enough in their quarterback search to wait for McCarthy first and then poured their leftover draft capital into acquiring Turner. Accounting for the original trade in March to acquire the No. 23 overall pick, and then the deal they made with the Jacksonville Jaguars to move to No. 17, they used the equivalent of two mid-first-round picks to get Turner, according to ESPN Analytics.”
Adofo-Mensah thought about getting cute but held off.
New Vikings Kicker to Wear Strange Number
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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